Peak-experience and the entheogenic use of cannabis in world religions

Abstract

This paper demonstrates that cannabis can evoke “peak-experiences”—the name psychologist Abraham Maslow gave to fleeting moments of expanded perception indicative of self-transcendence—when used alongside more traditional religious practices such as meditation, fasting, contemplative prayer, and sacramental ritual. For that reason, religious seekers around the globe have deployed cannabis as a deliberate psychoactive to trigger the peak-experiences that stir feelings of ecstasy, wonder, and awe and resolve the “dichotomies, polarities, and conflicts of life.” As such, peak-experiences exemplify a form of spiritual revelation that has played a pivotal role in the history of religion, and because of its ability to elicit unitive consciousness at the heart of mystical insight, cannabis has been utilized as a mild entheogen across culture and tradition for millennia.

Cannabis-induced oceanic boundlessness

“…Most of these allude to transcending materialism or enhancing philosophical insight (Ferrara, 2016). The subjective effects map on to formal definitions of peak experiences that include “unitive consciousness at the heart of mystical insight” (Ferrara, 2020).…”

Weed Central: Cannabis Specialists and Polydrug Vendors in Mexico City

“….]. Also, Ferrara (2020, 186) sheds light on a long history of psychoactive plants used in Native American cultures dating from before the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Cannabis is remained in Native American culture, and “the leaves and seeds of the cannabis plant were referred to aspipiltzintzintlis” (one of the more notorious names for a hallucinogenic, divinatory substance that fits into a broad category of “hallucinogens” including peyotl and ololiuhqui with which Mexico is so phenomenally rich) (Ferrara 2020, 196; see also Campos-Costero 2006, 96).…”

“…Also, Ferrara (2020, 186) sheds light on a long history of psychoactive plants used in Native American cultures dating from before the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Cannabis is remained in Native American culture, and “the leaves and seeds of the cannabis plant were referred to aspipiltzintzintlis” (one of the more notorious names for a hallucinogenic, divinatory substance that fits into a broad category of “hallucinogens” including peyotl and ololiuhqui with which Mexico is so phenomenally rich) (Ferrara 2020, 196; see also Campos-Costero 2006, 96). Wasson, (1963, 161–62) discussed plants such as ololiuhqui as being one of the four great “divinatory” plants ( picietl , peyotl , teonanacatl , and ololiuhqui ) among indigenous peoples at the time of the European conquest of Mexico that served as “keys to knowledge” among indigenous people.…”

“…Cannabis literature mainly focuses on marijuana consumption (Belackova and Vaccaro 2013; Ferrara 2020), and becoming a user (Becker 1953, 1955) (de)criminalization (Campos-Costero 2018; Hernandez and Zamudio 2009; Sandberg 2012a), however scant attention has been paid to the social characteristics of dealers (Adler 1993; Macit 2018; Chomczyński et al 2019; Chomczyński and Guy 2019) . While there is work on the cannabis markets in the United Kingdom and Norway (Coomber and Turnbull 2007; Sandberg 2012b) little is known about those in Mexico.…”

Відмінності Суб’єктивного Досвіду Пікових Переживань Та Гіпоманії: Феноменологічне Дослідження З Використанням Інтерв’ю Pexi

“…Порівняймо з описом гіпоманії (Evdokas & Khadivi, 2011): «відчуття піднесення, відсутності гальмування, звільнення від обмежень, свобода від самокритики, досягнення без зусиль». Пікові переживання зазвичай описуються та досліджуються в контексті самоактуалізації особистості, її духовного чи особистісного розвитку (Compton, 2018;Flower, 2017), трансцендентальних практик (Ferrara, 2021) або специфічних стимуляцій (Solberg & Dibben, 2018; Hoffman, Jiang, Wang, & Li, 2021), і рідше -в контексті психопатології. В той же час, на думку автора статті, як теоретично так і практично є сенс досліджувати відмінності у суб'єктивному досвіді гіпоманії та пікових переживань.…”